The Passage of Skills and Time

   Growing up, our greatest teachers are often our parents. They serve as our guiding lights as well as our greatest source of inspiration. My case was no different. I would be wholly immersed in any new vestige of skill or knowledge they would show me, and would revel in their praise and a feeling of accomplishment on acquiring even the minutest degree of mastery.

   I remember being introduced to the world of computers when I was four, and my parents purchased our first desktop computer. Looking back, it was an ancient machine, not even the most modern when it was purchased, with an outdated operating system and flickering CRT monitor. However, to me it was nothing short of a wonder, and my parents did their very best to show me just how wonderous such a machine could be. I remember being astounded by seeing a tiny white arrow move on the monitor with the mildest motions of my mother’s wrist over the mouse, among so many other things. Starting right off from there, my mother gradually taught me how to create new files, work through MS office, browse the internet and create my own email ID. My parents were nothing short of all-knowing geniuses to me.

   Today, ironically enough, I landed up being the one making a career out of computers and becoming our family’s resident technological expert. I am now the one helping my parents figure out how to sync their data to the cloud, or am writing scripts to scrape comments from my mother’s latest YouTube video to a word document. Despite this, I still feel like the student. Perhaps that is because none of my current skills, or even my interest in computers, would have ever existed without the foundational lessons my parents left with me.

   In a roundabout way, I almost feel like I am merely playing a part in the play of fate, and my parents are the main characters of this story. They invested all their time and effort into sharing what they knew with a clueless little child. Years later, they were able to reap the seeds they sowed through their child now helping them in return.

   I would like to believe that this idea spans far beyond the narrow scope of any skill. I believe that every child is born as a blank sheet of paper, and how they turn out to be depends almost entirely on the parenting that child receives. Parents who put a special effort into raising their children land up having children who are less vulnerable to societal evils and are most likely to stick with their parents until the very end.

   Well, that took an unexpected turn. The bottom line is, if you have someone in your care, be it a child, a student in your class, or even a house pet, put your all into nurturing them! You’ve taken the responsibility of taking in someone, so fulfil that responsibility!